1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a forming machine, more particularly to a forming machine for producing forged products.
2. Description of the Related Art
A forming machine for producing forged products typically includes a feeding mechanism for feeding a wire material to a cutting mechanism for cutting the wire material into wire sections which are delivered to a die assembly through a conveying clamp mechanism. The forming machine further includes a drive mechanism which drives the cutting mechanism and the conveying clamp mechanism through a first transmission mechanism and which also drives the feeding mechanism through a second transmission mechanism.
The first transmission mechanism includes a cam mechanism which has cam plates to cam respectively the cutting mechanism and the conveying clamp mechanism so that the cutting mechanism and the conveying clamp mechanism are actuated intermittently to perform their respective cutting and delivering actions. The second transmission mechanism includes a driven gear driven by a drive gear of the drive mechanism, and a link connected to and reciprocated by the driven gear. The feeding mechanism is driven by the link and advances the wire material in an intermittent manner.
The intermittent advancement of the wire material by the feeding mechanism are arranged to alternate with the cutting action of the cutting mechanism and the delivering action of the conveying clamp mechanism. To advance intermittently the wire material, the link of the second transmission mechanism is moved forward and backward by the driven gear. When the driven gear rotates by 180 degrees, the link moves forward to actuate the feeding mechanism so that the wire material is advanced. As the feeding mechanism is actuated, the cutting mechanism and the conveying clamp mechanism are temporarily stopped from proceeding with the cutting action and the forwarding action, respectively. When the driven gear rotates further by 180 degrees, the link moves backward so that the feeding mechanism temporarily stops advancing the wire material. At this time, the cutting mechanism and the conveying clamp mechanism perform the cutting and forwarding actions, respectively. Thus, the frequency ratio of the advancement of the wire material and the cutting and delivering of the cut wire sections is 1:1.
In order to increase the speed of such a forming machine, attempts have been made by increasing the rotating speed of the drive gear and the driven gear. However, this increases the speed of the reciprocation of the cam plates, thereby resulting in increased impacts between each cam plate and one of the cutting mechanism and the conveying clamp mechanism. The increased impact forces tend to produce considerable vibrations in the forming machine, thereby increasing an incidence of damaging the machine components.